The income growth rate is the student's expected annual increases in
salary, which typically range from 2% to 6%. Our default rate of 4%
differs from the 5% used by the US Department of Education.

Some students, however, know that their salary will be increasing
significantly a few years after they graduate. For example, some students
intend to accept a low-paying public service job for a few years after
graduation, and later switch to a private sector position with a
higher salary. Such salary shifts can have an impact on the
advisability of using income contingent repayment. Accordingly, such
students should complete the "Salary Jump" field in addition to the
"Income Growth Rate" field.

The CPI field contains the Consumer Price Index and is used to adjust
the Income Percentage Factors each year. There is no need for you to
change the value in this field unless you anticipate that the Consumer
Price Index will increase at a rate that is different from the rate in
recent years.

The Poverty Level Change Rate is used to adjust the
HHS Poverty Guidelines
each year, in order to try to obtain a more accurate
estimate of your payments under ICR. This rate is unrelated to the
CPI, since the poverty level depends on a different market basket than
the CPI. But it is fairly close to the CPI. If you want to use a fixed
poverty level based on the current poverty level, set this rate to 0.0%.
Make this rate different from the CPI rate only if you think that the
HHS Poverty Guidelines will increase at a rate that is greater or
smaller than the CPI.